Apostolic Tradition


The Apostolic Tradition is an early Christian treatise which belongs to the genre of the Church Orders. It has been described as of "incomparable importance as a source of information about church life and liturgy in the third century".
Rediscovered in the 19th century, it was given the name of Egyptian Church Order. In the first half of 20th century this text was commonly identified with the lost Apostolic Tradition presumed by Hippolytus of Rome. Due to this attribution, and the apparent early date of the text, this manual played a crucial role in the liturgical reforms of main mainstream Christian bodies. The attribution of this text to Hippolytus has since become a subject of continued debate in recent scholarship.
If the Apostolic Tradition is the work of Hippolytus of Rome, it could be dated before 235 CE and its origin would be Rome; this date has been defended in recent scholarship by Brent and Stewart. Against this, other scholars believe that the key liturgical sections incorporate material of separate sources, some Roman and some not, ranging from the middle second to the fourth century, being gathered and compiled on about 375-400 CE, probably in Egypt or even Syria. Against this, other scholars have suggested that the Apostolic Tradition portrays a liturgy that was never celebrated.

Derived Works

The Apostolic Tradition is amongst the earliest Church Orders to achieve widespread acceptance and circulation; and consequently many subsequent Church Orders, especially in the East, are expansions or adaptations of it. Hence, where the text in the versions may be unclear, missing or widely variant, it is sometimes possible to discern the most likely reading of the original Greek from consideration of counterpart passages one or more of these works. The main derived works are:
Producing a critical edition of a work that survives in several versions, of which none are in the original language, is highly problematic. Clearly the edition has to be a translation; but which language should be used as the common version? And should the editor try to recover something close to the 'original' text; or rather to produce the best text for one or another of the surviving versions?
The first comprehensive critical editions were those of Gregory Dix in 1937, and then in 1946 by B. Botte. Dix and Botte both attempted to recover an 'original' text of the 3rd century; but translated into English and French respectively. Since then, G. Cuming prepared a student edition in English in 1976; taking the rather different approach of seeking to translate one of the versions; while Paul Bradshaw et al. have prepared a commentary in 2002 in which all versions are translated in synoptic columns, with no attempt to establish a primary text. Indeed, Bradshaw maintains that, as 'living literature' the Apostolic Tradition cannot be regarded as ever having had a single primary text.
The more conservative approach of Dix and Botte has more recently been represented in the translation by Alistair Stewart. For the first edition in 2001, Stewart selected eclectically for each chapter, the version that looked to have the best text; and then translated that, with correction from the others. This approach has been criticised as implying a 'standard' text, when there was then no evidence that such a normative text had ever existed. The discovery of the Aksumite Ethiopic version - especially in respect of its close relationship with the Latin version in those sections where both are witnessed - is claimed by Stewart as demonstrating that at one time a 'standard' complete text did indeed circulate, however much this may have been adjusted and reordered in later versions and derived works. Stewart's second edition of 2015 mainly takes the Latin version as its base text; and translates the Aksumite Ethiopic for the most part for those chapters not witnessed in the Latin.

Date and place of composition

The context for the Church Order represented in the Apostolic Tradition is one where Christians face official persecution, are regularly imprisoned for their faith and occasionally face martyrdom. All Christian worship takes place within private houses. Prospective new converts are assumed to be all adults, and are to be questioned initially by a 'teacher' in private before being introduced to the Christian congregation ; but baptism is also extended to children and infants in newcoming families. Regular worship includes not only a weekly eucharist, but also a shared fellowship meal, or agape feast. Ecstatic prophecy is occasionally encountered in worship. All of these observations confirm a date in the 3rd century or earlier.
The wide range of forbidden trades specified, confirm a place of composition in one of the two major urban centres of the Roman Empire, Rome itself, or Alexandria. Particular provisions in the Church Order relate to local practices which identify this place as Rome; specifically that the dead are buried in catacombs sealed into shelves with tiles; and also the stipulation that, in the regular Sunday eucharist, portions of the bread consecrated by the bishop are to be broken off by deacons and carried by them to presbyters in other churches in the city, wrapped in napkins.
Recent scholarship, such as that by Bradshaw and Johnson, has called into question the degree to which the liturgical texts witnessed in the Apostolic Tradition may be taken as representing the regular forms of worship in Rome in the 3rd century. They propose that, over the centuries, later and non-Roman liturgical forms have accumulated within an older, and substantially Roman, Church Order.

Title

None of the manuscript versions carry a title, and so there is no direct evidence as to how the 'Apostolic Tradition' was originally known. The quotation of chapter 36 in the Ochrid fragment is labelled, Diataxis of the Holy Apostles: Given through Hippolytus; and this has been plausibly suggested as the probable title under which the whole text of the Apostolic Tradition circulated in Syria. The Epitome of the eighth book of the Apostolic Constitutions refers to Regulations of the Holy Apostles concerning ordination through Hippolytus, which could be an expansion on the same title.
The commonly used title; 'Apostolic Tradition' depends on identifying this work with an item on a list inscribed on a statue - once thought to be of Hippolytus - now in the Vatican Library. Aside from the statue certainly not depicting Hippolytus, there is no clear evidence for the inscribed list as being proposed to comprise Hippolytus's works. Alistair Stewart points out that 'Apostolic Tradition' denotes a genre rather than a particular work; as all Church Orders aspire to convey Apostolic Tradition. He also points out that the title on the statue ought properly to be read over two lines; which could then be rendered as On Spiritual Gifts; the Apostolic Tradition. This could indeed well be the title of this work, as the first sentence of the current first chapter states "Those things then, concerning spiritual gifts which are worthy of note, we have set forth." On the face of it, this would imply an earlier, lost, section, setting out how God creates spiritual gifts within individual believers, as a prelude to the surviving initial discussion of rites of appointment and ordination.

Attribution to Hippolytus

The section of the Alexandrine Sinodos, rediscovered in the 19th century, which was given the name of Egyptian Church Order, was identified with the lost Apostolic Tradition presumed by Hippolytus of Rome by Edward von der Goltz in 1906 and later by Eduard Schwartz in 1910 and by R.H. Connolly in 1916. This attribution was unanimously accepted by the scholars of that period, and became well-recognized by the works of Gregory Dix, in particular his famous The Shape of the Liturgy. The attribution to Hippolytus was based on following data:
The attribution of the Apostolic Tradition to Hippolytus of Rome have been recently under heavy attack. Thus according to recent scholars the Apostolic Tradition is, or a work written by another priest named Hippolytus but lived probably in Alexandria, or it contains material of separate sources ranging from the middle second to the fourth century. The reasons given to support this understanding are the following:
The Apostolic Tradition, as the other Church Orders, has the aim to offer authoritative "apostolic" prescriptions on matters of moral conduct, liturgy and Church organization. It can be divided in a prologue and three main sections. The chapter numbers and order are those of Botte.
The first section, chapters 2 to 14, deals with the rituals of the organization of the Church, and it follows a hierarchical order starting from the bishops up to the lower levels of the structure. The content can be so summarized:
The second section, chapters 15 to 21, is about the catechumenate and the baptism;
The last section, chapters 22 to 43, is a compilation of rules about the community, listed without a clear order:
The text of the Apostolic Tradition was part of three main ancient collections of the Church Orders, the Alexandrine Sinodos, the Aksumite Collection and the Verona Palimpsest. Being included in the Alexandrine Sinodos, it was held to be authoritative in Asia Minor, Syria, Egypt and Ethiopia, where it was copied and re-edited.
The Apostolic Tradition was also used as basis for great part of the eighth book of the Apostolic Constitutions, which had a great diffusion in antiquity. Also the ancient Canons of Hippolytus, Testamentum Domini and Epitome of the eighth Book of the Apostolic Constitutions derive from it.
The text of the Apostolic Tradition, believed to be authentically a work describing the early 3rd century Roman liturgy, has been widely influential on liturgical scholarship in the twentieth century and it was one of the pillars of the liturgical movement. The anaphora included in chapter four was extensively used in preparing reforms for the Book of Common Prayer and the United Methodist Liturgies found in the current United Methodist Hymnal. This anaphora is also the inspiration for the Eucharistic Prayer n. II of the Catholic Mass of Paul VI.
The Roman Catholic prayer of ordination of bishops, renewed after the Second Vatican Council, has been re-written and based on the one included in the Apostolic Tradition.